A friend of mine once asked me whether I have seen where it was written in the bible that God started work again after He rested on the seventh day, and I said no. He said that the simple interpretation was that God is still resting; that what we see today as the acts of God are just the acts of nature. I sought the education from him. He told me that God created the world and put it in auto-pilot called nature while He continued resting. He told me that nature from then became the regulator, the sustainer, and the arbiter of the whole universe.
I reminded that friend about the book of John 5:17 where Jesus Christ declared: “my father goes on working, and so do I.” However, I appreciated his reasonable argument. Many people worship nature as a god. It is called the Mother Nature or Mother Earth. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, Mother Earth is a cosmogonic figure, the eternally fruitful source of everything. By this description, Mother Earth could be said to be the source of human life. Somehow, Genesis 2:7 equally corroborated this when it said that, “…the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” At the end of every human life, Mother Earth receives back the body into her womb, the tomb. Perhaps, this is why dead bodies are said to be committed to the Mother Earth.
In ancient and modern nonliterate religions, Mother Earth is seen as something that has neither a beginning nor an end. A regard befitting God Almighty alone. One should not blame the erroneous knowledge since until scientific discoveries availed humanity the knowledge of the structure of the earth, it was believed to be without boundaries. The high regard in which the ancient and modern nonliterate religions all over the world hold the Mother Earth made them to deify and worship her.
Just like their contemporaries all over the world, the ancient and modern nonliterate religions in Igbo land, as well as the majority of Igbo societies in Nigeria have special regard for the Mother Earth and they worship her. They call it Ala, Ani, or Ana in their variegated Igbo dialects. The grand altar for worshipping the Mother Earth is located in Aguleri, Anambra State, Nigeria (the cradle of Igbo race); and the altar is known as Ajana Ukwu, loosely translated, The Great Soil of the Earth.
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In Igbo communities of old and even today, there are transgressions (such as murder, and incest) that are considered to be against the natural laws (nso ana). Whenever such sins are committed, the LAND must be appeased through the means prescribed by the gods, or else there would be poor yields from farms, or something more severe against the offender or the entire community. The appeasement is done at Ajana Ukwu, a great altar for the worship of the Mother Nature in Igboezunu Aguleri.
Out of intellectual curiosity, I visited Ajana Ukwu on December 16, 2017 to get firsthand information about the deity. When I got to Igboezunu community of Aguleri, I needed directions to the location of the deity. I stumbled into a man in his mid-30s who introduced himself to me as Chidi Nwokedi. He volunteered to take me to Ajana Ukwu which he said was just a stone throw from where we stood. He asked me my mission to the deity, and I told him that it was purely academic. He grinned in appreciation and told me that I won’t really understand Ajana Ukwu without the knowledge about Okpanime deity (The Mother of Eri Kindred) to which he was a chief priest. He volunteered to give me the introductory nuggets of information into my subject of study, and I jumped at the offer.
He showed me two giant figures carved in wood which were covered with grease, grime, chalk and what appeared to be dried blood of animals killed for sacrifices. He told me that Ajana Ukwu represented heaven and earth while Okpanime was the goddess of fertility, riches, and the Mama of Africa. When he said that, I looked around. I found the precincts of the deity garlanded with strands of white clothes tied to a line, and the dark, young chief priest wearing anklets on his legs. As if he read that I wondered how on earth a young man like him became the chief priest of the deity, he told me that it was Okpanime that brought him back to Aguleri in 2015 to serve her. He granted a snapshot wearing his priestly regalia before we left the place and proceeded to Ajana Ukwu deity.
We took a narrow footpath from Eziama Igboezunu village square and went where Ajana Ukwu stood. He pointed to a cluster of trees and shrubs that surrounded an elevated land. Before he could tell me where we were, a little signpost had given me the wisdom with its pink letters that read: AJANA UKWU AGULERI; with a perpendicular arrow pointing to the ground in an unwavering direction. I peered into the thicket of greenery, searching the elevated point for things of interest. I found only dried blood of animals obviously killed for sacrifices, which ran the slope of the elevation. The entire sanctum of the deity was strewn with feathers, while white clothes of several yards hung here and there within and along the perimeter of the place set apart for the deity.
We walked down still, to where the chief priest lived. I found the chief priest an octogenarian once he emerged from his house. We greeted him. He hailed the young chief priest who turned my guide three consecutive times, “Igwe Okpanime!” I affirmed the camaraderie between both of them. The young chief priest of Okpanime played my spokesperson concerning my mission, and the aged chief priest of Ajana Ukwu promptly accepted to give the information I sought. I got down to the business for which I came.
Responding to my probes, the chief priest introduced himself as Adee Agbogu (Okwdo Ana).
“Ajana Ukwu is what unites Aguleri Otu na Igbo, and the entire Igbo land. Ajana Ukwu is not a charm or Juju, it is the land. Every traditional king of Igbo land (not the certificate kings of nowadays) comes here as part of the requirements for their coronation.
“Aguleri assigned Umumba village of Igboezunu Aguleri the role of being priests to Ajana Ukwu,” he said.
I allowed myself a moment, thinking about Umumba village of Igboezunu Aguleri and their priestly role to Ajana Ukwu, which is more like the Levi tribe of Israel which was assigned the priestly role in the temple of the Most High. This is another pointer to the fact that Aguleri, nay the entire Igbo nation has Jewish descent.
I asked the chief priest what actually was the role of Ajana Aguleri. He laughed out loud, and I wondered if my question was stupid.
“It arrests and punishes offenders that committed nso ana, (taboos), and never leaves them until they come here to confess their sins, and then undergo cleansing rituals.”
The chief priest began to cite examples of nso ana which ranged from murder to sexual perversions. They were more or less the Levitical laws in the bible. After listening to the catalogue of nso ana, as given by the chief priest, I concluded that I could not have expected less from those who have Jewish blood flowing in their veins.
“Ajana Ukwu also helps Aguleri in times of crisis,” the chief priest continued. “It goes to wars as well as other rivalries with all the spirit beings in Aguleri and brings back victories for Aguleri. It is a great deity that Aguleri celebrates in Onwa Isaa of every year.”
When the chief priest talked about the role of Ajana Ukwu for Aguleri and the entire Igbo land, I remembered an account by a Lagos-based cousin who recounted that there was a day in Lagos when Odua People’s Congress (OPC) was killing and maiming the Igbo people trading in Lagos. He said that the group was led by a well-built strong man who being fortified with charms and amulets defied the machetes and guns employed by the Igbo people in self-defence. According to him, the persecuted traders began to make tactical retreats save for one Aguleri man who stood his ground with his gun. He called upon Ajana Ukwu Aguleri, picked sand from the ground, put it into the barrel of his gun and shot the OPC Goliath down. He said that the feat ended the OPC attacks against the Igbo traders in Lagos till today.
I thanked the chief priest for his kindness responding to my questions. I had planned to ask him if he believed in the existence of God Almighty but I skipped the question because when he prayed with kola nut, he called upon the God that Lives in Heaven Whose Garment Touches the Ground.
Finally, I requested for permission to take pictures of the deity but the chief priest granted only a picture of himself saying that though there was no law by Ajana Ukwu against pictures but it was wise to leave Ajana alone with our camera technology.
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